


Try

by Steph_R94



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games)
Genre: BladeCage, CageBlade - Freeform, Divorce, F/M, Hurt, agnst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 03:30:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19164925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steph_R94/pseuds/Steph_R94
Summary: Johnny had tried to be everything: supportive husband to Sonya, father and mother to Cassie; but, at some point, he realized he needed to start taking care of himself. Enough was enough.





	Try

                Johnny tried.

                He tried to be understanding and supportive of Sonya because he knew how important the mission she had undertaken was. He had fought beside her and risked his life many times to make sure they succeeded. He too wanted a better world for their daughter to grow up in, but that didn’t mean he wanted to miss her growing up.

                And he knew Sonya didn’t either, but she was. She was missing so many milestones; he tried to record all of them, but some of those moments you just had to be there to see. Cassie’s first steps were caught on film, but her first words weren’t. He had heard the disappointment in Sonya’s voice whenever he had told her over the phone that night. Her first words were Dada.

                Though he tried to be all that Cassie needed, he knew she still longed for her mother. The hard questions came when his little girl with nine.

                _Why doesn’t mom stay home with us?_ Johnny had tried to explain with editing just why Sonya chose to leave, but he could tell that Cassie was too young to fully grasp that horrors weren’t just in television. She hadn’t accepted it.

                She had asked Sonya whenever she had come home from yet another long leave.

                Shortly after that, the fighting between them had started. Oh, they certainly didn’t fight in front of Cassie. They made sure that any arguing went on behind closed doors, but Johnny wasn’t so daft not to see that Cassie could still hear them. Sonya didn’t believe that Johnny hadn’t put Cassie up to asking that question; and Johnny spewed hurtful things as a result. His thoughts and feelings each time Sonya walked out that door, not seeing the crestfallen look on her daughter’s face as her mother would yet again miss another soccer game, all rushed to the surface. He cried as he shouted them, begged her to simply take a break even if just for a week so that she could know her daughter. A telephone conversation once in a blue moon wasn’t enough. Cassie needed her mother.

                After much more arguing, Sonya had caved. She would request a week off from work. Johnny happily let his daughter soak up all of Sonya’s attention. His daughter’s glowing smile was enough to dim the hurt he felt whenever Sonya gave him the cold shoulder until that Wednesday. That Wednesday she had rolled over and told him he was right.

                Sonya admitted that she knew Cassie needed her mother and that Johnny needed her even if he never said it. His eyes were carrying bags that no amount of makeup from his skilled artists at work could cover. He had stopped taking gigs that sent him away for more than two weeks—even if it meant rigorous filming that left him dead on his feet. Sonya’s hand on his cheek that night had felt comforting, so very comforting that he had melted into her.

                _“I’ll try to do better.”_ She had promised.

                For a while, she had. She had called more often and talked longer to both of them. Whenever a crisis wasn’t occurring, she came home sooner instead of staying to finish up a report that could wait till morning. Sonya had tried. Johnny had been able to tell, however, that work never really left her mind. She worried constantly and received phone calls from them no matter the time they called. Worse, he knew Cassie could see it as well.

                Sonya had been able to keep it up for two months. And then, another call came in; this time from Raiden. Liu Kang and Kung Lao had been spotted. He needed Sonya and S-F. Sonya had apologized, kissed him and Cassie goodbye, and left. Johnny had missed the tint of relief in her voice underneath her nerves and rage.

                That mission marked the beginning of the end. Sonya stopped trying. She threw herself back into her mission once she had healed from three broken ribs and burns to her midsection. Unfortunately, it had also marked the beginning of the end of their marriage.

                Sonya wouldn’t talk to him about what happened on that mission. She wouldn’t even consider taking a day off, much less a week like she had been. Whenever she came home, if she didn’t opt to sleep at the base, she would collapse in bed after a brief forehead kiss to Cassie. He could feel the distance growing between them like a physical ache.

                He had never questioned his feelings for Sonya; but he couldn’t help but question hers. He knew without a doubt that she loved Cassie; but him? He was a backdrop to her job. If there was a tier ranking, he felt like he would be at the bottom.

                He held on for nearly a month before he realized that everyone could witness his pain. Cassie’s eye were sad whenever she looked at him; Vera’s lips would press into a thin line; and Jax would simply advert his eyes. He was hurting the people he cared for by hanging on. The clincher came whenever he overheard Cassie ask her mother if she loved him anymore.

                Sonya had answered yes, but it had sounded hollow to Johnny. He had been drowning in the valley she had created between them. Knowing she loved him still wasn't enough. Sometimes, love wasn't enough. A relationship needed more than one person's communication to survive; and Sonya had been absent for too long. She hadn't seen his pain, hadn’t listened when he had tried to talk to her about the way he was feeling, and hadn't shown him the slightest sign that she still cared. The sudden attention she showed him after her conversation with Cassie (a conversation ten year old Cassie should have never had to have with her mother) felt like pity.

               He asked for the divorce. She signed the papers.

               Johnny cried for his daughter, for himself, and for his marriage. He knew he would always love her. This wasn’t like his first marriage. His love for Sonya had been real and deeper than anything he had ever felt before. He broke his heart to let Sonya go; but he couldn’t keep letting his daughter experience his misery, his doubt.

               Sonya had given him the house and moved into an apartment close-by. Since Sonya’s job was so dangerous and she was frequently absent from home, Johnny had been awarded custody of Cassie. Sonya would have visitation anytime she wished. As far as divorces went, it was both the most painful and the easiest he had ever experienced.

               Even though he knew Sonya was hurt-in both pride and heart, she hadn’t fought him.  A part of his heart almost wished she had. Things had continued as they had before the divorce. Johnny would drop Cassie off at the Briggs’ household whenever he had an away film; he would come back and pick her up, fix dinner for two, and Sonya would drop in whenever she was home. She didn’t stay.

               Nothing had changed; and yet, everything had.

               

               


End file.
